Princess Sepora of Serubel is the last Forger in all the five kingdoms. The spectorium she creates provides energy for all, but now her father has found a way to weaponize it, and his intentions to incite war force her to flee from his grasp. She escapes across enemy lines into the kingdom of Theoria, but her plans to hide are thwarted when she is captured and placed in the young king’s servitude.

Tarik has just taken over rulership of Theoria, and must now face a new plague sweeping through his kingdom and killing his citizens. The last thing he needs is a troublesome servant vying for his attention. But mistress Sepora will not be ignored. When the two finally meet face-to-face, they form an unlikely bond that complicates life in ways neither of them could have imagined.

Sepora’s gift could save Tarik’s kingdom from the Quiet Plague. But should she trust her growing feelings for her nemesis, or should she hide her gifts at all costs?

A huge thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Am I the only one that thinks this cover is hideous? Because I keep seeing it from a distance and thinking it can’t be that bad and then I actually look at it and realize, yep, it actually is that bad.

Despite the ugly cover though, I decide to go for it because it sounded intriguing and you know, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. In this case, I sort of wished I had.

The world was interesting, I’ll give the book that much. I liked the differences between the Theoria and Serubel and enjoyed reading about Theoria as a place. It was a vibrant world and I would have loved to get more of it, but Sepora was confined to the palace for a decent portion of the book.

Another aspect of the book I liked were both Sepora and Tarik as characters. I struggled at first with connecting with either of them because of the constant flipping back and forth between point of views, some of the chapters feeling very short and abrupt. But eventually, once I got a feel for the characters, I grew to like them. Tarik especially stood out to me, as the young struggling king, and I felt his struggles when it came to putting his heart or kingdom first. That conflict always twinges my tender heartstrings. When it came to Sepora, I flipped back and forth between loving and hating her. She was tough and stubborn, both things I can respect in a young woman. But… she was also overly dramatic and kind of snotty. Although, in her defense, she is a princess.

Everything else in the book was pretty lackluster, even frustrating at times. There was a silly insta-love, which I kind of expected, considering the two main characters didn’t even meet until a third of the way into the book. Their relationship was just kind of meh, mostly just Tarik musing every five seconds about how amazing Sepora’s shining silver eyes are or how mouthwatering her chamomile and orchid scent is. Give me a break.

And the romance was obviously supposed to carry the story because seriously, nothing else happened. And I mean, nothing. The plot was so slow and full of a whole lot of nothing. And when something happened, it felt like it wasn’t very well explained. Almost like the author had an idea for something she wanted in the book but wasn’t quite sure how to work it into the story so it’s explanation is sketchy and kind of unbelievable. Not only that, but I was so disappointed that Sepora’s forging is never really used for anything. At the beginning, she uses it to make a knife and I thought, as an interesting power, she would use it throughout the book for various things. But I actually don’t think she uses it again for the rest of the book. It was such a letdown.

I was looking forward to this book so much but it ended up being a slow love story with no much else going for it. And an unsightly cover on top of everything else.

Summary: Henrietta Howel can burst into flames. When she is brought to London to train with Her Majesty’s sorcerers, she meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, young men eager to test her powers and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her. As Henrietta discovers the secrets hiding behind the glamour of sorcerer life, she begins to doubt that she’s the true prophesied one. With battle looming, how much will she risk to save the city–and the one she loves?

A huge thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not going to lie, this one was tough for me. It’s possible that this book is actually amazing on a regular basis but because I read it while still recovering from the disgusting hangover that EoS gave me, I had abnormally difficult time with it. But that being said, it doesn’t change the fact that this book was really just so hard for me to get into and, to be honest, just not that great.

Right away, this book was confusing. I’ve never been opposed the authors acting like their readers actually have brains and letting us fill in some gaps, but damn, this book just jumped right in, talking about Ancients and having spooky monster girls on flying stags dropping out the sky. All with very little explanation about the world or what was happening. My brain was definitely a little annoyed and I found it hard to follow.

But hey, I kept reading because you know, magic and sorcerers and cool staves that you can twirl around and whoosh wind at people with. Those are all things I like. But you know what I don’t like? Boring characters. The typical “chosen one” story line. Continuously stupid decisions. Giant love triangle squiggle things. All of those are bad. And all of those were in this book.

My main issue with this book was that I honestly didn’t care about any of the characters at all. I had a hard time even keeping all of the boys straight, to be honest. But not even that, they also made decisions that made me resent them or had random changes of heart that made no sense to me. Two characters that hate each other with a passion through the whole book suddenly have a little heart to heart and the next thing I know, they are literally best friends. No joke, like calling each other their best friend and parading around with their arms linked, best friend badges nice and shiny for the world to see. And Henrietta lies a lot. But these boys still have this weird unshakable faith in her, almost like some sort of hero worship that feels very undeserved. Speaking of lying, this was one of those books where the main character has to lie and sneak around all the time and you are just counting down the pages until you know it’s going to blow up in their face as dramatically as possible.

And of course, I have to discuss the love blob that was happening here. It felt so forced and shallow, I could hardly stand it. There are multiple guys that have feelings for Henrietta, but she hardly ever thinks about them romantically until they are in the moment and something romantic happens, then she just brushes it off with hardly a second thought. There was no progression or building when it came to the romance, it was just kind of there, but in a way that just didn’t work at all. So there is definitely a love triangle, but I’m going so far as to call it a love blob because there’s a third guy that doesn’t pursue her romantically in this book but I’m calling it right now; it will happen.

This might seem like a random, nit-picky thing, but it bothered me so much that I have to mention it. At some point in this book, a character is telling Henrietta something important. He tries to twice and it’s that thing where he conveniently gets cut off one second before he can mention the important part of what he’s trying to tell her… So for example (this isn’t in the book), he’s like, “I only have a second. The treasure’s buried in-” BOOM, CONVENIENT EXPLOSION.

Come on. This bothers me so much. It feels so childish and lazy, like the author can’t think of a creative way to tie this secret in or make us intrigued enough to pick up the next book without employing the use of this extremely annoying and cheap feeling tactic.

The one redeeming factor this book had was that towards the end, it actually started to pick up and I did get a little interested. Up until about 85%, nothing really happened in the book, just Henrietta lying and juggling multiple boys and bursting into flames a few times. But last chunk of the book was a bit faster paced and exciting.

So overall, my main problem with this book was really that nothing felt original or unique. Not the story or the characters. The writing felt simple and uncomplicated, the relationships flat and forced, and the magic was disappointing. I really wanted to like this book because it sounded like something I would love, but it just didn’t deliver. I will give it two stars though for the fact that I did finish it and didn’t hate the end and that overall, it didn’t make me angry, it just left me feeling very meh.

Summary: passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever.

Sigh… I’m sorry to be that person but seriously, this book was such a huge disappointment. If you’re like me and expected an epic adventure of time travel and treasure hunting and a well developed romance, don’t even bother with this one. Really, just don’t. To put it pretty bluntly, a single episode of Doctor Who has more time travel, more heart, more character development and a better story line.

I have to address the biggest issue I had with this book which was it’s romance that just completely overshadowed all other elements of the story. While I didn’t hate both characters, I grew to despise them for their constant musing over each other and sighing wistfully as they stared into the distance, wondering how they ended up with someone so perfect. This is a story where the heroes have only a few days to find this treasure and WAY too much time was spent on them cuddling in the dark or stopping to talk about their feelings. Not to mention it was one of the biggest cases of insta-love that I’ve had the misfortune of reading in a long time. It was unrealistic, overly mushy, rushed and to be honest, so frustrating at times.

Since a majority of the time was spent on the romance between Etta and Nicholas, that means that the adventure was at the bottom of the priority list and you could tell. It wasn’t even much of an adventure, it was more just the two of them walking through one passage, ending up in a new time for a chapter so they could make out in some secluded place, then they would move on to the next passage. Nothing really felt difficult, it was one of those books where it felt like all of the answers were handed to them. And all of the places they went to felt so one dimensional, like you were given a description of how it looked but never quite got the actual feel of the place.

And the fluff in this book, holy-…. Okay, I seriously think that this book could have been half as long as it was. A ridiculous amount of it was Etta or Nicholas constantly pondering or sitting in the dark thinking deep thoughts and overly describing everything. It got to the point where I would just skim read whole chunks of pages because nothing important was happening, just more endless feeling sorry for themselves and internal conflict over every little thing.

The one thing that saved this book was that Nicholas and Etta weren’t the worst. Etta was okay at best, she had so much potential as a genuinely strong heroine but that was ruined with the stupid romance and constant drooling over her companion. Nicholas obviously had the same issue but I liked him a little more as a conflicted character and because we got to see how horribly people treated him because he’s African American. The lack of diverse characters in YA is something we all know about and it was really refreshing to read about someone who struggles with inequality through all of these different time periods they travel to. It was sad and upsetting to read about but also added a layer of depth to his character, to see how much he struggled with letting his race and the limitations of it throughout time periods define and control him.

I know I’m probably in the minority here but for the life of me, I can’t understand why so many people are going crazy over this book. It was a big confusing mess at the beginning, so slow and unnecessarily long, and the romance wasn’t well written and took away from all the things that could have actually made this book good. It ended up being nothing like I had hoped, with generic bad guys, forced insta-love and one dimensional settings. Take my advice and skip this one.

Gwyneth Shepherd’s sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon–the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

This book is one that I’m constantly hearing tons of hype about and I’ve been wanting to get my hands on it for a long time. The cover is gorgeous, the story line sounds intriguing, and to be honest, this book was a complete letdown.

Ruby Red started off really great, with an interesting concept of time travel and a seemingly likable heroine. I loved that the whole family knew what was going on and the time travel thing wasn’t actually a secret; I found that to be really refreshing. However, that all disappeared in a poof of broken dreams when Gwyneth started making stupid decision after stupid decision. She randomly jumps back in time a few times, both times scared and put in dangerous situations and just decides to not tell anyone because she’s scared they are going to think she wants attention. Uh, okay? You clearly aren’t the biggest idiot ever.

On top of Gwyneth making stupid decision after stupid decision, she was honestly just a rather unlikable heroine. She never made a single smart decision and was weirdly comfortable with just not telling anyone anything. She doesn’t tell people when she sees ghosts or anything, instead being perfectly content to just let them think she is crazy and wonder who she is talking to, instead of easily being able to prove to them that she isn’t crazy. I just didn’t understand any of her reasoning behind making those sorts of choices.

Another problem I had with this book is the writing that constantly feels awkward and choppy. I’m not sure if that’s because of the translation or intentionally the authors writing style, but either way, I really have a problem with it. I found it difficult to read and hard to get into with the occasional little things that just threw me off or made me pause for a second.

All of these things could have been bearable, if it wasn’t for the ridiculous romance. After literally knowing Gideon for a grand total of one day, suddenly he is “her type” and she is swooning over him, despite the fact that that one day was spent with him being a total jerk to her. This might be one of the worst cases of insta-love I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering. We learn absolutely nothing about Gideon so apparently a brooding, insulting, controlling douche is exactly the sort of guy Gwyneth is looking for because she wastes no time falling madly in love with him. And he of course, is totally enchanted by her despite his feelings for another because she’s so different from every other girl. Excuse me while I go gag.

The thing that I did actually enjoy about this book was the whole time travel aspect. I thought it was a creative idea to have all of these people connected through time and blood, and I also liked the idea that they have a way to control when they travel too. I also liked the laws of time travel, how when you jump back though time, you are in the same exact spot you were in before so you need to be careful about where you are when you jump back and forth.

I wanted to love this book, I truly did. But to be honest, I’m just so confused as to why this book gets so much hype. I didn’t find the characters well written or likable, the plot was predictable and the romance beyond cliche and unrealistic. I tried so hard to get into it and see what everyone else was seeing, but I guess I missed it.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

I’ve been putting this book off for a while, mostly because it sounded pretty cliche and predictable. I finally decided to give it a chance and hoped that I would get an action packed, well written fantasy book with a strong heroine. Unfortunately this book ended up being more like the opposite.

My main problem with this book was the unfortunate excuse of a heroine known as Meira. Prone to making poor decisions and not thinking things through, Meira is that sort of girl you just want to smack some sense into, basically every single time she makes a decision. She just doesn’t bother thinking things through or being logical about anything, instead acting like a big whiny baby and pitching a fit every time something doesn’t go her way. I can respect someone who stands up for themselves and doesn’t want to get pushed around, but Meira constantly acts hypocritical, talking about how she only wants to help her people, then making selfish decisions that she doesn’t bother thinking out. And on top of that, I just found her to be straight up unlikable. Just something about her constantly made me grind my teeth, which is typically not a good reaction to have about the main character.

Another thing I had a problem with was the world itself. While I’ll admit that I’m definitely not an expert by any means, logically this world does not make sense to me. There are four pieces of land along the bottom of the continent, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, from left to right. And each piece of land has weather and landscape that fits it’s name. And that just logically doesn’t make sense to me. Now I get that this is a fantasy book so it doesn’t necessarily have to be realistic, but if you are going to do something like this, I feel like there needs to be a reason behind it. I know it sounds kind of silly, but it honestly just constantly bothered me when they would cross from somewhere like Spring where it’s warm and flowery, over to Winter where it would freezing and snowy. On top of that, I didn’t like the cliche names the author gave everything. For example, the capital of Winter is Jannuari and the capital of Autumn is Oktuber. Definitely not the most original or creative of names.

However, there were a few aspects of this book that I did enjoy, mainly the magic system. I was intrigued by the way that magic works in this world, but I wish we had gotten more information on it. Now I have to admit, I was skim reading through some parts so I might have missed some stuff, but I would have liked to get a bit more history like on how magic was discovered and how people learned to utilize it. I liked the idea of conduits and the Decay, both of which really interested me, and both of which I want to learn more about.

The other good thing about this book was that can honestly say it wasn’t as predictable as I had feared. Sure, the occasional thing went as expected, but when the story line started heating up, I didn’t know what direction it would go in. Though I didn’t really care about the story enough to try and guess what was going to happen next, the fact that I didn’t automatically know was an unexpected surprise.

Ultimately this book ended up being rather unmemorable and didn’t really stand out among lots of the other YA fantasy books I’ve read so far this year. With a heroine that I heavily disliked, lack of connection with any of the secondary characters, and an illogically world, the emotion I felt most while reading this book was annoyance. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there’s a love triangle on top of everything else. Woo hoo. While some aspects of the world were interesting enough, it was tough for the book to keep my attention and I found myself not particularly caring what happened to the characters.

Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it’s price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla’s fatal touch.

Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla’s chilling role to the girls she truly is.

Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen’s, some truths should not be told…

This book was not at all what I expected, and while sometimes that can result in a pleasant surprise, this is not one of those cases. There was so much potential here but everything just fell flat.

The first problem I had with this book was the appalling lack of personality and life in the main character, Twylla. It just left like we didn’t actually get to know Twylla as a character, she felt lifeless and one dimensional. I found that she whined a lot and was very bitter about her life, but never actually did anything to change it. There isn’t anything that frustrates me more than a main character that just does absolutely nothing. The few things that she actually does do are centered around stupid decisions and I just found myself constantly cringing, knowing that disaster was just around the corner.

The romance was just as lacking. This book has a dreaded love triangle and I couldn’t understand Twylla’s affections for either boy, or theirs for her. I mean, they are definitely all similar in the way that they have no personality and are kind of whiny, so maybe it’s exciting for them to finally find someone equally as bland. We don’t get to know much about either boy but they are, of course, instantly and madly in love with Twylla. Not only was the romance not particularly interesting, but it also took up a huge portion of the book that would have been much better off focusing on something else.

As far as the villain goes, there is no doubt that the queen was evil and twisted. However, I really have a problem with villains like this, ones that are absolutely evil but give no indication as to why they are they are that way. We got no background on the queen, no history behind her or story as to how she ended up where she is, unleashing rabid dogs on people and killing whoever she wants. One of the things that can really make a book for me is well developed villain, which this book was lacking.

The main thing that I did enjoy about this book was the world and the mythology incorporated into it. I found the concept of the Sin Eater really interesting. In this world, when people die, their families will cover their coffin with food that symbolizes the sins the person committed during their life. The Sin Eater, Twylla’s mother in this case, will go and eat all of the food and in doing that, it’s like she can declare them pure enough to continue into the afterlife. The different beliefs and gods in this world are all fairly interesting. On top of that, the different countries and their histories were intriguing too, although we don’t get to learn nearly as much as I would like to.

The plot of this book really suffered from heavy amount of romance and not much else. There is this plot line centered around wanting to change the way things are run and fighting against the queen’s tyranny, but while the political aspects and a rebellion could have been a driving force behind this story, it was such a small part that was overshadowed by the romance. Also, I was really hoping we would get a lot of focus on Twylla coming to understand her powers, but that is also a small part of the story. I like the concept behind it but Twylla actually never does anything about her power, she just feels sorry for herself a lot and mopes around. There was also this very random feeling plot line centered around the myth of this “Sleeping Prince” that just came out of nowhere and didn’t seem to really have anything to do with the rest of the story. Although this book does get kudos for the ending that I definitely did not see coming.

In the end, while the world and story had lots of potential, nothing in this book was half as interesting as the summary implies. With boring characters and an insta-love and a love triangle that takes over most of the story, it was difficult for me to trudge through this one. Aspects of this book were interesting and if the author had decided to build onto those, the story would have been much more successful.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

Have you guys noticed the growing amount of Jennifer L. Armentrout books I’ve been reading lately? Apparently smoldering romance books have been taking over my life. Maybe I’ll just blame it on the fact that Valentine’s Day is almost here.

Obsidian is about a girl named Katy who moves to this new little town and meets her next door neighbors, a girl named Dee is who super fun and bubbly and wants to be best friends with her, and her brother Daemon who is kind of a huge jerk. She finds out that they are aliens, supernatural shenanigans happen, romance blossoms, feelings are hurt, you guys know how it goes.

I’ve heard nothing but raves and crazy fangirls sobbing over this book, so I went into it fully prepared to swoon and gasp and shriek. Ultimately, I was a little underwhelmed by this book. I knew it was going to be very Twilight-y and I’m okay with that, but that actually wasn’t the reason that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

To start with, Daemon was a dick. I love my boys with a nice bit of sass and maybe a little cocky, but Daemon was just a straight up douche. Like, when I compare him to Roth from White Hot Kiss, Roth is playful and funny and a bit of a jerk sometimes but we all know he isn’t being serious. Daemon was rude and hurtful and arrogant in a way that made you want to punch him in the face. I didn’t like how he humiliated Katy in front of a bunch of people, constantly insulted and made fun of her, and how he thought he could act that way then just automatically be forgiven because he occasionally did something nice or because Katy thinks he’s hot. His behavior actually kind of ruined him for me and I never really found myself growing to like him. Maybe I hated him a little less by the end of the book, but I never liked him.

I liked Katy, she had lots of spunk and I enjoyed her witty comebacks when it came to Daemon. I also liked that she didn’t really instantly start falling for him, sure she thought we was hot, but she wasn’t in love with him or anything. She always called him out on being a jerk and walked away a lot which I wanted to give her a high five for, but then she would let him pop back into her life until her did something awful again. I would have respected her a lot more if she had just held her ground and pushed him away until he changed or started acting better, instead of tolerating the way her treated her. Also, Katy was one of those girls that makes some stupid decisions, gets rescued, then makes more stupid decisions. I don’t understand how we are supposed to believe that girls like that survived in the real world for years without some guy to run in and save them all the time.

Despite the issues that I had with the characters, I did really enjoy the alien aspects of this book. Aliens definitely aren’t anything that I read much about, so I really loved the newness of learning about alien powers and culture and whatnot versus the typical supernatural species I read about most of the time. I do wish that Daemon and Dee remembered more about their planet though because I would have loved to learn more about the differences between it and Earth and the way they lived. What we did get, learning about the different powers, their true forms and their enemies, was super intriguing.

As far as the plot went, it was a pretty light read. Most of it focused on the relationship between Katy and Daemon which I wasn’t really grooving on, but the few times that we got more, like the fights between Daemon and the dark aliens, I loved it. I was actually kind of mad that the summary of this book tells you that they are aliens, because probably about half of the book is Katy trying to figure out why they are so weird. Since we already knew what was going on, it almost got boring to wait for her to catch up. However, the superficial stuff like her dealing with bitchy girls and making friends, was entertaining enough to keep me reading until the book started to pick up the pace.

Obsidian was definitely a bit of a disappointment and I didn’t enjoy it half as much as I did White Hot Kiss or Wicked. I was hoping for Daemon to be a hot swoon-worthy hunk, but instead I got an immature, arrogant jerk who didn’t understand that you can keep people at a distance without treating them like total crap. The predictable plot and semi-boring first half was a bit hard to get into, but the humor and alien information kept my interest enough that I obviously finished it. I still wouldn’t consider this book as out of this world as everyone keeps saying it is. Get it? Out of this world? Aliens?